The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-11-03

battle all through, and you shall have the
victory. Oh, it is battle worth fight
ing. Two rnonarchs of old fought duel,
Charles V and Francis, and the stakes
were kingdoms, Milan and Burgundy.
Tou fight with sin, and the stake is
heaven or hell.
Do not get the fatal idea that you are
a genius and that therefore there is no
need of close application. 1t is. here
where multitudes fail. The great curse
of this age is the geniuses, men with
enormous self conceit and egotism, and
nothing else. l had rather be an OK than
an eagle; plain and plodding and useful,
rather than high flying and good for
nothing but to pick out the eyes of car
casses. Extraordinary capacity without
use is extraordinary failure. There is no
hope for that person who begins life re-
solved to hive by his wits, for the proba-
bllity is he has not any. 1t was not safe
/ for Adam, even in his unfallen state, to
have nothing to do, and Therefore God
commanded him to be d farmer and hor-
ticuiturist. He was to dress the garden and
keep it, and had he and his wife obeyed
the divine Injunction and been at work,
they would not have been sauntering
fruit which destroyed them and their
po5terity; proof positive for all ages to
como that those who do not attend to
their business are sure to get into mis-
chief. / do not know that the prodigal
in Scripture would ever have been re-
claimed had he not given up his idle
habits and gone to feeding swine for
living. $50 to the ant, thou sluggard,
consider her ways and be wise, which
having no overseer or guide provideth
her food in the summer and gathereth
her meat in the harvest" +" The devil does
not so often attack the man who is busy
with the pen, and the book, and the
trowel, and the saw, and the hammer.
He is afraid of those weapons. But woe
to that man whom this roaring lion meets
with his hands in his pockets. Do not
demand that your toll always be elegant
and cleanly and refined. There is a certain
amount of drudgery through which we
must all pass, whatever be our occupa-
ton. You know how men are sentenced,
a certain number to years Of prison, and
after they have suffered and worked out
the time, then they are allowed to go
free. And so it is with all Of us. God
passed on us the sentence, ''By the sweat
of thy bPow shalt thou eat bread. " We
must endure our time Of drudgery, and
then, after while, we will be allowed
to go into comparative liberty. We must
be willing to endure the sentence. We
all know what drudgery is connected
with the beginning of any trade or pro-
fession, but this does not continue all
our lives, if it be the students, or the
merchants, or the mechanics life, [
know you have at the beginning many a
hard time, but after a while these things
viii become easy. You viii be your own
master. Gods sentence will be satisfied.
You viii be discharged from prison.
Bless God that you have a brain to think,
and hands to work, and feet to walk
with, for in your constant activity, 0
Young man, is one of your strongest de-
fenses. Put your trust in God and do
your level best. That child had it right
when the horses ran away with the load
of wood ard he sat upon it. When asked
if he was frightened, he said: ''No,
prayed to God and hung on like a
beaver"
Again, profound respect for the Sab
bath will be to the young man power
ful preservative against evil. God has
thrust into the toll and fatigue OF life a
recreative day, when the soul is espe-
cially to be fed. 1t is no new tangled no
ton of q wild Drained reforIner, but an
institution established at the beginning.
God has made natural and moral laws
/ SO harmonious that the body as well as
! the soul demands this institution. Our
. bodies are seven day clocks, that must be
I wound up as often as that, or they will
! run down. Failure must come sooner or
! later to the man who breaks the Sabbath.
, Inspiration has called it the Lords day,
and he who devotes it to the world is
/ guilty of robbery God will not let the
sin go unpunished either in this world or
! the world to come. This is the statement
of a man who had broken this divine en-
actment:
Il was engaged in manufacturing on
the Lehigh river. On the Sabbath / used
to rest, but never regarded God in it.
One beautiful Sabbath, when the noise
was all hushed, and the day was all that
loveliness could make it, sat down on
my piazza and went to work inventing q
new shuttle. | neither stopped to eat
nor drink till the sun went down. By
that time | had the invention completed.
The next morning I exhibited it, Boosted
of my days work, and was applauded.
The shuttle was tried and worked well,
but that Sabbath days work cost me
$50, 200. we branched out and en-
larged, and the curse Of heaven was upon
me from that day onward
While the divine frown must rest upon
him who tramples upon this statute,
Gods special favor viii be upon that
young man who scrupulously observes it.
This Gay, properly observed, will throw
q hallowed influence over all the week.
The seng, and sermon, and sanctuary
will hold back from presumptuous scenes.
That young man who begins the duties Of
life with either secret or open disrespcct
of the holy day, venture to prophesy,
will meet with no prominent successes.
Gods curse will fall upon his ship, his
store his office, his studio, his body, and
his soul. The way of the wicked he
turneth upside down. In one of the old
fables it was said that wonderful child
was a1rn in Bagdad, and a magician
could near his footsteps 1000 miles away.
But can hear in the footsteps of that
young man, on his way to the house of
worship this morning, step not only of a
IllGtllllG VI ulltoSy ptiG tliS SOllAiISO
step of eternal joys of heavens yet mill
ions of miles away.
Again, noble ideal and confident ex-
pectation of approximating to it, will in
,allibly advance. The artist completes in
his mind the great thought that he wishes
10 transfer to the canvas or the marble
before he takes up the crayon or the
chisel. The architect plans out the en-
tire structure before he orders the work
men to begin, and though there may for
a long time seem to be nothing but
laundering and rudeness he has in his
mind every Corinthian wreath and Gothic
arch and Byzantine capital. The poet
arranges the entire plot before he begins
to chime the first canto of tingling
rhythms. And yet, stranger to us, there
ans men who attempt to build their char